Breaking: SC Verdict On Constitutional Validity Of Triple Talaq Tomorrow

A five judge constitution bench will tomorrow pronounce its historic judgment on constitutional validity of triple talaq.

Apart from petitions filed by Shayara  Bano, Afreen Rahman, Ishrat Jahan, Gulshan Parveen and Farha Faiz, the bench will also pronounce its verdict on the October 2015 reference from the bench of justices Anil R Dave and Adarsh Kumar Goel who while dealing with a Muslim divorce case ordered registration of a Public Interest Litigation for a special bench to consider gender discrimination suffered by Muslim women owing to “arbitrary divorce and second marriage of their husbands during the currency of their first marriage”.

WHO ARE THE JUDGES

The multi-religion constitution bench comprises of Chief Justice J S Khehar  and Justices Kurian Joseph, RF Nariman, UU Lalit and Abdul Nazeer

ISSUES BEFORE THE BENCH

The judges had during the six day hearing during the summer vacation examined if the practice of triple talaq among Muslims is fundamental to their religion and whether the practice is part of an "enforceable" fundamental right to practice religion by Muslims.After six days of continuous hearing, the constitution bench had on May 18 reserved its verdict

During the hearing the CJI had repeatedly asked " can what is sinful in the eyes of god be lawful?. If god considers it a sin it cant be legal. Can it be? We are just asking". Justice Kurian Joseph echoed the same question rephrasing it a bit asking: "is something is Islamically abhorrent, sinful or under any religious law it is distasteful, can it be validated by law made by man?"

SIBAL’S PASSIONATE PLEA ON BEHALF OF AIMPLB

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal for the AIMPLB had in his concluding remarks compared Muslim community to “ small birds on which the Golden Eagle preys” and said the “community's nests must have the protection of the Supreme Court”. Sibal said “it is that faith with which the community is today before the court seeking protection of its personal law customs and practices”.

Sibal said “Muslim community faith in Supreme Court  for last 67 years is fundamental and it is this faith that makes the country vibrant”.

In a last ditch effort to evade a harsh order, the Muslim Board also filed an affidavit saying it would issue an advisory to ‘Qazis’, requesting them to advice the bridegrooms against resorting to triple talaq to annul their marriage. The Board also decided that those who resort to triple divorce in one go leading to the creation of problems thereafter should be boycotted by the Muslims.